Sunday, May 8, 2016

It has been a very long and interesting semester in this class. I have learned a lot more than I intentionally expected myself to learn. One of the most memorable lessons is the one we had about the Palestine and Israel conflict. Having Dr.Zaru come in there and tell us about how life was for people who lived on occupied land was very eye opening. I did not know that Israel had divided Palestine into 3 areas (A,B, and C). Within these 3 areas of 1 country, there were 3 various "leaders", but Israel has a say in all of these 3 areas. Going to the various embassies was also fun and educational. I learned about the various policies in each of these embassies we visited. This was a great class to take, because it helped me see the world in a different light. Living in the US and watching news here, it is natural for one to be bias on certain issues that they do not really understand. But taking this SIS has made me a better researcher, I do not only rely on western news, I look at other news sources so that way I can see two different opinions.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Suheir Hammad is an Arab-American poet, political activist, author and performer. She was born to Palestinian parents in October 25th, 1973 in Amman Jordan. When Suheir was five years old, her parents immigrated to New York. Suheir Hammad’s work has appeared in over a dozen anthologies and numerous publications.I find Suheir Hammad to be

very interesting because of her book “Born Palestinian, Born Black & the Gaza Suite”. In this book she writes about culture, consciousness and also conflict.

There is one poem by Suheir that I find to be very touching and inspirational. This is the poem she wrote after the 9/11 terror attacks. To sum up the poem, she was talking about how she was disappointed that her “brothers” were the ones who committed the crimes. There is one line in the poem that I found astounding, when she said

on my block, a woman was crying in a car parked and stranded in hurt.

i offered comfort, extended a hand she did not see before she said,

"we're gonna burn them so bad, i swear, so bad." my hand went to my

head and my head went to the numbers within it of the dead iraqi

children, the dead in nicaragua. the dead in rwanda who had to vie

with fake sport wrestling for america's attention.

yet when people sent emails saying, this was bound to happen, lets

not forget u.s. transgressions, for half a second i felt resentful.

hold up with that, cause i live here, these are my friends and fam,

and it could have been me in those buildings, and we're not bad

people, do not support america's bullying. can i just have a half

second to feel bad?

I have put a link to the video of her reciting the poem. Hope you enjoy